KLTV
KLTV is a TV station in Tyler, Texas. It's an ABC network affiliate & it broadcasts it's analog signal on VHF ch. 7 & DT signal on ch. 10. The station's most well known slogan is "Proud of East Texas", a slogan it has carried since 1985. The slogan is also used by it's sister station KTRE, a satellite station in Lufkin. It's Northeast Texas coverage area includes Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, Palestine, Carthage & Henderson, Texas. Owned by Raycom Media, the station also operates & produces morning & weekend newscasts for KTRE. It has been the dominant station in the market for most of it's history & news broadcasts on the station routinely garner several times the number of viewers of it's nearest competitor. KLTV & it's staff have received several awards, including 7 Lone Star EMMY awards. The station was nominated in 2008 for 11 Lone Star EMMY Awards including: Best Morning & Evening Newscasts, Weather, several news & sports specials & reporting. The station's studios were located near SH 31 & Loop 323 on the east side of Tyler, until the late 1990s, when they moved their studio facilities to downtown Tyler. The old studios were demolished on Tyler's East side in November 2007. KLTV's current studios are located in a former savings & loan branch & office complex near the Smith County Courthouse. History KLTV went on the air on October 14, 1954 & shared affiliation time with ABC, CBS & NBC until the early 1980s. It was owned originally by Buford Television, which was owned by Lucille Buford. Buford Television owned the station until the early 1990s, when it was sold to Civic Communications of Jackson, Mississippi. Civic merged with The Liberty Corporation in 2002. In 2006, Liberty merged with the station's current owner, Raycom Media. KLTV installed their DT tower on September 23, 2005 & started broadcasting a HD signal on ch. 7.1 over-the-air (ch. 10) & on SuddenLink cable ch. 720 on December 14, 2005. KLTV is the second East Texas station to broadcast in HD. They also started airing the "StormTracker 24/7 Weather Channel", on DT ch. 7.2, running 24-hour temperatures, weather conditions & the StormTracker 7 Live Doppler Network, available on SuddenLink cable ch. 247 in East Texas. Both DT channels 7.1 & 7.2 are also available on Longview Cable TV channels 246 & 247 respectively. In the first round of DTV channel elections, KLTV has elected to return their DT channel assignment back to ch. 7 after the 2009 analog cutoff date. Tower Collapse At approximately 7:30 AM on Friday, February 3 2006, KLTV's 1078 foot broadcast transmitter tower @ Red Springs, about ten miles north of Tyler, near the city of Hawkins, collapsed, taking both KLTV's analog & DT over-the-air signals off the air, leaving cable customers of COX Cable Communications as the only customers who could receive the station. The outage also affected the feed of the station to DirecTV & Dish Network. Interestingly, the collapse occurred the day after new owners Raycom Media officially took ownership of the station. Within 13 hours of the collapse, KLTV re-established analog broadcasts at reduced power from it's former station & transmitter location in eastern Tyler. A new Harris transmitter was brought in the day after the collapse, allowing resumption of high-power broadcasts from the Tyler site, though from a tower slightly less than half the height of the destroyed tower. This allowed the viewing area to see Super Bowl XL on analog ch. 7. DT broadcasts resumed from the Tyler site several days later. In addition, Tyler Christian radio station KVNE-FM was also knocked off as a result of the collapse. The station is broadcasting @ 500 watts from a temporary location. On February 7, KVNE held a 1-day fundraiser to raise a goal of $70,000 to put the station back on @ high-power. The station raised more than $80,000 in their 15-hour campaign. No injuries were reported. No cause for the collapse has been disclosed to date. Recovery After the Collapse KLTV has restored their analog OTA signal from their original tower @ Highway 31 & Loop 323 in Tyler, near their original studio site, along with their signals to DirecTV & Dish Network & the feeds to all Tyler-Longview area cable companies. Their analog transmitter equipment was undamaged & was supplemented @ the original tower site with a newer transmitter, however their Over-the-Air HD & DTV transmission equipment was a total loss. In March & April 2007, KLTV ran a "Flip The Switch" promotion to promote the completion of the new Red Springs tower. Viewers were urged to submit 30 second videos to show why they should be selected to Flip The Switch. Winners were selected by popular vote on KLTV.com. The winner was Jeff Heimer & on April 17, 2007 @ approximately 6:58 PM, he officially flipped the switch to turn on the new transmitter & tower. News Ratings In a June 2006 article, the Longview News-Journal reported, "In the May ratings from Nielsen Media Research, KLTV continued it's dominance of the area TV market, with an estimated 70,000 East Texas households tuning in to it's 10 PM newscast, "KLTV 7 News @ 10." KETK was second with about 12,000 viewers & KYTX was watched by an estimated 9,000 viewers." Personalities Current On-Air Talent KLTV Anchors *'Christine Nelson': Good Morning East Texas & 5 PM Anchor *'Molly Reuter': Weekend Anchor/Reporter *'Gillian Sheridan': 6 & 10 PM Anchor **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated** *'Joe Terrell': 5, 6 & 10 PM Anchor/Managing Editor/"Does It Work?" Feature Reporter **2008 Lone Star EMMY Winner** *'Clint Yeatts': Good Morning East Texas Anchor/Managing Editor **2008 Lone Star EMMY Winner** KLTV Reporters *'Danielle Capper': General Assignment Reporter *'Bob Hallmark': General Assignment Reporter *'Joan Hallmark': Proud of East Texas *'Barry Hanson': "East Texas Angler" Reporter *'Courtney Big Ass Lane': General Assignment Reporter **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated** *'Layron Livingston': General Assignment Reporter *'LaKecia Shockley': General Assignment Reporter StormTracker 7 Weather Team ' *'Mark Scirto: Chief Meteorologist **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated** *'Grant Dade': Good Morning East Texas/MidDay Meteorologist *'Michael Hetrick': Weekend Meteorologist Sports Anchors/Reporters *'Maya Golden': Sports Director/Anchor **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated** *'Reid Kerr': Sports Reporter/Anchor KLTV.com *'Cathryn Khalil': KLTV.com News Producer Former On-Air Personalities *Devin Scillian: News anchor from 1986-1989, currently @ WDIV & also a children's author *Lindsay Wilcox: reporter/anchor, currently @ KXAS *Morgan Palmer: meteorologist, currently @ WBBH *Sandra Brown: novelist *Robert Hilliard: cameraman, director & news anchor *Oralia Ortega: reporter/weekend anchor, currently @ WSVN *Lorri Vaughter: reporter *Eric Sorensen: morning meteorologist from 2000-2003, currently @ WREX *Jennifer Brice: morning anchor from 2002-2005, currently @ KSEE *Paul Abrams: general assignments reporter from 1993-1996, currently a public relations director. *Julie Tam: news reporter from 2003-2005, currently @ WDRB *Michelle Mortensen: news anchor from 2002-2005, currently @ WPTZ *Michael Coleman: sports director from 1997-2004, currently @ News 12 Long Island *Cynthia Izaguirre: Anchor/Reporter, Currently @ WFAA *Tracy Watler: general assignment reporter, currently @ KTUL **2008 Lone Star EMMY Winner** News/Station Presentation Newscasts *'Good Morning East Texas': Monday - Friday, 5-7 AM **2008 Lone Star EMMY Winner** *'East Texas News MidDay': Monday - Friday, 11:30 AM-12 PM *'KLTV 7 News @ 5': Monday - Friday, 5-5:30 PM **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated** *'KLTV 7 News @ 6': Monday - Saturday, 6-6:30 PM *'KLTV 7 News @ 10': Every Night @ 10 PM ''**2007 Lone Star EMMY Award Winner-Best Evening Newscast/Small Market** **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated** Newscast Titles *''East Texas News 7'' (1954-1998) *''Channel 7 News'' (1998-2003) *''KLTV 7 News'' (2003-present) Station Slogans *''Proud of East Texas'' (1985-2003) *''You'll Love it on Channel 7'' (1985-1986, local version of ABC campaign) *''Caring. Committed. Proud.'' (2003-present) *''Your East Texas News Leader'' (2006-present) See also *Circle 7 logo External links *KLTV Homepage *KLTV celebrates 50th anniversary (2004)